Clemontic Overdrive
by SparklingEspeon
Summary: In a world without pokemon, struggling human inventor Clemont Von-Klyne makes a groundbreaking discovery… AU… obviously. Written for the contest on the Pokewrite forum.


**CLEMONTIC OVERDRIVE**

"A really long time ago, there were pokemon! Pokemon who swam in the seas, and pokemon who flew in the sky, and even pokemon who lived deep, deep underground! We have pictures now, but that's all we have.

Because 100 years ago, all the pokemon disappeared."

(-o-)

"_Anything can be accomplished with the right cause and currency."_

(-o-)

**Lumiose City - 4/5/2020 - 3:00 P.M.**

"_The future is now, thanks to science!"_

Clemont Von-Klyne, 16-Year-Old Genius Inventor, gleefully ignored the wave of grumbles that spread throughout his classmates like a fever. Setting his latest invention upon the table; the dusty old sheet he always used for presentations still covering it, he adjusted his spectacles so they caught the light just the right way.

"Presenting:" Clemont prepared to strike an Inspiring Inventor Pose. "The-"

"Just stop."

Clemont looked up at the class in confusion. Never had anyone asked him to stop before...

"Please. Cart that thing out of here." Minerva Maple, Senior Class President, put her head in her hands. "We all know what's going to happen. You'll present some convoluted device that overcomplicates what should be a simple task, and then it'll explode in everyone's faces."

"I-it's not going to be like that this time!" Clemont stammered nervously. He adjusted his spectacles a second time, fighting the compulsion to fiddle with them like he always did in times of stress.

"Really?" Minerva's face was clad in armored skepticism; a byproduct of far too many of Clemont's failed 'inventions.' "Because I seem to remember your 'Clemontic Cake Slicer' exploding just last week and destroying the teacher's antique desk with it."

"T-that was just a bug I needed to fix!" Clemont retorted. His hands were shaking now; the inventor having refrained from using any of his usual stress-coping methods. This one wasn't going to explode. He was sure of it. If only he could get over his nervousness…

"Well, your 'bugs' have destroyed ten classrooms this _semester_." Minerva stated. "As your fellow student and a responsible attendant of this university, I'm hereby using the power vested in me as class president to forbid you from showing your inventions in here again."

And just like that, Clemont regained all his confidence.

"Aha! According to my knowledge of class presidency, you can't do that without casting a vote first!" He exclaimed boldly, letting his glasses catch the light again. He had read in a book somewhere that recurring gimmicks played well with large crowds.

"We did." Minerva stated frankly. "Without you."

(-o-)

"_Earth. Kalos. Lumiose City,"_ The TV blared. _"Clemont Von-Klyne."_

"Big brother, you're on TV!" 8-year-old Bonnie screamed from the living room, hopping off the armchair she had previously been plopped in the middle of and dashing all the way down the hall to Clemont's bedroom.

"_A genius inventor who, at the age of four, invented the Clemontic Citr-On, a citrus juicer that revolutionized the food industry… forever." _The ad blared on as Bonnie furiously rapped at Clemont's door.

"Big brother! Come out; you're gonna miss it!" Bonnie yelled, pounding at the door with both her fists.

"_Now, he's gone on to become one of the most prestigious minds of our time."_

"Big _brother!"_ Bonnie pulled at the doorknob with all her might, in the vain hope it might break off and allow her access to the bedroom.

"_And tomorrow, he'll be unveiling the new centerpiece of Lumiose City."_

Noticing the ad had reached its 75% mark, Bonnie jiggled the doorknob and battered the door in frustration. He wasn't gonna come out in time-

"_A Clemont Von-Klyne creation: The all new… Prism Tower! Coming April 6__th__, 2020."_

The ad finished. Bonnie collapsed to her knees in half-disappointment, half exhaustion. He'd missed it. He always missed it when it came on. And she always forgot to…

…Oh. She could have recorded it on the tape! That just made her pout in annoyance. Why hadn't she remembered to do that?

Bonnie's head swiveled towards the living room at the sound of the front door opening. Maybe that was him! She picked herself up from the ground faster than a hyperactive squirrel and ran back into the living room, where she collided headfirst not with her big brother, but into the belly of her father instead.

"Bonnie!" Meyer chided. He looked worn out. Bonnie frowned.

"I'm sorry… I thought you were Clemont…" She apologized.

Meyer set the bags of groceries he'd been carrying onto the counter with an exhausted sigh. "No, Clemont's not home. He's off working on that 'Prism Tower' thing he has to do nowadays."

"Oh…" Bonnie's disappointment showed in her voice and face; somewhat on purpose. Maybe if she pouted enough, Father would take her to see Clemont!

"When did you get back home from school?" Meyer asked, eager to change the subject. He started unpacking the groceries, leaving the ingredients he planned to use on the counter.

"An hour ago." Bonnie's answer was prompt and short. "I did what you said to do. I turned on the TV and watched until someone came home!"

Meyer raised a skeptical eyebrow at Bonnie, taking out a chef's knife and beginning to slice the carrots he'd bought. "Really? I'm pretty sure that's not what I told you to do after you came home."

Bonnie folded her arms in defeat. It had been worth a try.

"Do you remember what I DID tell you to do?" Meyer asked.

"Finish my homework…" Bonnie grumbled.

"Exactly!" Meyer exclaimed. He removed a pot from one of the cupboards and brushed the sliced carrots into it, noticing the darkening look on Bonnie's face. "Go on now," he shooed her. "If you finish before dinner I might take you to see Clemont later."

And just like that, there was no sign that Bonnie hadn't been in her bedroom writing her essay the entire time.

(-o-)

Clemont checked his clockwork watch. It was 5:27. Thanks to Meyer, clockwork watches were now a staple of the Von-Klyne family. Clemont had never really complained or noticed it much. He had received the watch when he was three, as a measure of newfound responsibility not normally granted to kids his age. It still had his mother's faded handwriting scrawled on the maroon leather strap: "Anything can be accomplished, with the right cause and currency!"

The old red wagon hit a crack in the sidewalk and jostled Clemont's machine. Clemont looked back to make sure nothing had fallen out.

His newest invention had been easy to make. He only had to adapt the same system he'd devised for the Prism Tower's emergency backup generator to a smaller form, and… voila.

Clemont dug his entry-level I.D. out of his pocket and showed it to the guards standing outside the Prism Tower. He gingerly pocketed it as the guards let him through, standing guard behind the young inventor.

He stopped just outside the massive archway that led into the Tower, making his way over to the inconspicuous breaker box off to the side and throwing the switch. In seconds, the Tower lit up with brilliant light, illuminating the cloudy sunset around the city with its shine like a massive homing beacon.

Just how Clemont had designed it to.

The primary generators, located within the walls of the Tower's first floor, were designed to hum and whir with enough frequency to block out the noises of traffic outside. Clemont liked it that way. It eliminated all the distractions that would tear him away from his work, as well as allowing him to invent in peace.

And he needed that tonight more than anything. Because tonight, he was about to design the most important invention of his life. And he only had a single night to do it in.

(-o-)

It was ten seconds to 5:27, and there had been an incident on the Satellite earlier today. The headlines were pasted all over the holographic news display of Golurk's Square when Liam walked out the doors of the college he attended, written in eye-catching bright red text: BREAKING NEWS: SCYTHER GOES MAD; ATTEMPTS TO BREAK OUTSIDE OF SATELLITE.

"That's sad."

Sasha the meinshao folded her whip-like arms nonchalantly. "I wonder what possessed him to do that."

"I wonder what possessed our teacher to laugh off my theory," Liam replied in the same aloof tone.

Sasha sighed. He was in 'that' mood again.

"Well, firstly, espeon can't teleport," She stated. "Not anymore, at any rate. And secondly, why would you _want_ to go to Earth?! There's a reason we all moved here in the first place!"

"Well,_ maybe_ it's different now!" Liam countered. "Haven't you thought of that?"

Sasha was quiet for a moment, clearly, there would be no convincing him. The espeon would simply need to walk/run/live it off.

"Honestly, Liam…" She began. "Nomon's gonna expend the energy to check, and nomon really cares! We're all happy here, so why bother?"

With that, she began to walk off. _Anything _not to give the espeon a chance to respond.

"But," she called back in jest as she walked off, "If you DO somehow reach Earth and make it back to tell the tale, I wanna hear about. You come to me first, okay?!"

Liam rolled his eyes at the departing meinshao, then closed them. He cleared his mind and let the energy collect in his dark red forehead gem.

He was standing right in the middle of Golurk's Square, and he wanted to be on Audino Drive, in just Three, Two, One…

Liam focused all his mental energy on Audino Drive. The cookie-cutter houses, the odd tree, the flat pavement so perfect and void of holes it made him want to puke over how artificial it was… There was no room for distractions. Just a single stray thought could mess everything up. Liam took a millisecond to clear his head once more, and then he concentrated harder.

He could feel the gem embedded in his forehead begin to heat up with energy, and then there was a flash of bright light that enveloped his entire being, and suddenly he was _there_, sitting on the imperfectly perfect pavement of Audino Drive. It was 5:27.

Liam opened his eyes. No longer could he hear the impeccably loud noise and traffic of Golurk's Square; he could only see the line of cookie-cutter houses stretching in a broad curve around the immense space gate that made up one side of the satellite. Liam stifled a preliminary whoop of joy, after checking to make sure all his limbs and body parts were still there. He'd done it! Espeon weren't supposed to be able to teleport, but he had done it! It was the fifth time this week.

Shaking the last bits of telekinetic energy off, Liam continued into the house up ahead. It WAS his driveway, after all.

(-o-)

High above the atmosphere, where it was both scorching hot and freezing cold and suffocating all at the same time, It floated. It floated exactly one second out of sync with the rest of the timestream, where the humans would never find it. And It was all because of Dorian.

For it was Dorian the metagross who had come up with the idea in the first place. Dorian who had shown all of pokemonkind how oppressed they were under the humans' rule. Dorian who had united them all to build their salvation (And it was probably Dorian who had bribed Dialga into creating the time pocket they currently resided in, too).

And thanks to Dorian, every single pokemon alive now resided within the Excalibur Satellite, safe from the humans forevermore (Dorian had named it after a fictional aegislash from an old tome that had been transported onto the Satellite).

Of course, Dorian had passed away almost 50 years ago. A statue of the metagross now existed in Golurk's Square, in memorial of the pokemon who had saved them all from eternal slavery.

Everyone in the immediate vicinity was sleeping now. Liam could feel it. He let his eyes flutter open. It was time to execute the first stage of his plan.

Technically, the theory was all in place. Teleportation was a very risky and shrouded venture (due to there being a disproportionally smaller amount of studies into that ability than others), but Liam had a hypothesis: If one teleported fast enough over a large enough distance, then it was theoretically possible…

…To break through the time pocket surrounding the Satellite and enter the atmosphere of Planet Earth.

In other words, time travel. Just the thought made Liam jittery with excitement. And after his controlled experiment in Golurk's Square earlier that day, Liam could safely say that there was a 50% percent chance he wouldn't end up in the middle of outer space!

If everything went well, Liam would be back in his bedroom the morning of the following day, and no-one would know he'd even been gone, much less outside the Satellite.

He just wanted to see it. Just once. No matter how many pokemon told him it was impossible.

Liam silently ducked out the front door of his house, walking across the imperfectly perfect pavement of Audino Drive. The satellite was certainly different at night. At least, what was deemed as 'night' in outer space. There were less pokemon around for sure; only what looked like a possibly drunk absol stumbling around in a daze a ways down the street.

Absol were widely regarded as bad omens by humans before the Departure, and while that notion had been mostly dispelled by pokemon society in general, it couldn't help but make Liam a little nervous.

Ducking between a pair of houses, Liam walked up to the metal handrail built for observing the space-window in the distance. He looked back at the absol, who was currently muttering to itself and swiping at thin air. Clearly some kind of homeless bum who was just there by coincidence. Liam couldn't read dark types, so that was probably what was making him nervous…

Liam took a millisecond to clear those thoughts from his head, concentrating instead upon his vision of Earth. He remembered the (admittedly sub-par) picture he had drawn for his school project in the second grade, the holographic globe of Earth that shone brightly in the skies of Excalibur Satellite Central, an old, black-and-white photo his teacher had shown them of a city called 'Paris…'

He wanted to be there. He wanted to be there with every fiber of his being…

The absol snapped out of its drunken stupor and could only cover its eyes to shield them from the sudden flash of white light that filled the street in seconds flat. And then, everything was easier to see, because it was gone. And so was Liam.

And exactly one second beforehand, all of Lumiose City suddenly lost power.

(-o-)

Clemont lifted the visor of the heat shield he was wearing. That was the last of the welding… for now. Snapping the welder off and setting it aside, he finally removed what felt like an entire suit of heat-resistant armor off his jumpsuit and stuck his round-rimmed glasses back on his nose. Now that he could see clearly again, he could notice all the little imperfections in the still-cooling, vaguely humanoid machine before him. All the little mistakes.

Clemont sighed. He never worked well without his glasses. In fact, he could barely see anything without them! One time, after losing them, he'd spent the better part of an hour apologizing to various inanimate objects he'd bumped into while on the hunt for his ever-vital specs. He had never quite recovered from the embarrassment of that little incident. But, bygones were bygones, and Clemont had to move on to the programming.

He'd written it up four days ago; which was easy, seeing as the robot only had a single task. He simply had to test it in order to make sure that it worked properly, then configure it for the big day.

The giant windows of Prism Tower let the chilly night breeze in (Kalos had a constant cold climate, to Clemont's chagrin) as Clemont booted up his computer. The old thing was clearly on its last leg, but Clemont didn't like to change computers until the very last minute.

**Booting…**

The screen read.

…

…

…

**Program Detected**

**Run " "? Y/N****_**

Clemont pressed Y.

**Running Program**

**...**

**Salutations! I am Clembot, at your service. What will you ask of me?****_**

** Set Speech Lines**

** Execute Protocols**

_** Set Master Recognition Password**_

The microphone clicked on.

"**SPEAK PASSWORD HERE"**

The computer screen read.

Clemont cracked his knuckles in barely restrained glee. It was working!

"The password," Clemont leaned in. "Is '**Sandwich.'**"

He pressed the enter key on the computer, and the microphone clicked to a stop. Then, a moment later, it clicked on again.

"**CONFIRM VERBAL PASSWORD"**

"**Sandwich**," Clemont spoke again-

"_-Big brother!"_

Clemont hit the enter key as fast as he could, breathing a sigh of relief when the words:

"**MASTER RECOGNITION PASSWORD CONFIRMED"**

Appeared on the screen, and Clembot's main menu popped up again. Clemont only had enough time to swivel the chair he was sitting in around before he was half-crushed by the airborne figure of Bonnie.

"B-Bonnie!' Clemont stammered in the thralls of his sister's iron grip. "You're hugging me too tight…"

"I missed you…" Bonnie hugged Clemont even harder before letting go. In the distance, Clemont could see Meyer walking through the Tower's entrance arch.

"I like what you've done with the place!" Meyer called out from the distance, and Clemont couldn't help but adjust his glasses just a little in abashed nervousness.

"What's _that, _Clemont?" Bonnie had leapt off Clemont's lap and was now curiously inspecting Clembot's metal framework, still sitting on the 32-degree angle operating table Clemont had built it on.

"Nothing!" Clemont quickly spun the table around before Bonnie could touch anything that could possibly make it explode. "Just… another invention I'm working on!" He stated.

"Really?" Bonnie asked; half-skeptically. " What does it do?"

Clemont let his glasses catch the florescent light nervously. He didn't have an answer for her. He didn't want to say what it REALLY did, but how was he supposed to lie to her… ?

"Wow. You've done a bang-up job here, Clemont." Meyer approached Clemont and Bonnie, still carrying the paper bag he'd brought with him. "I… I'm so proud!"

"H-how did you both get in here?" Clemont asked, trying not to sound rude. "There are guards at every entrance."

"We just showed them the I.D.s you gave us!" Bonnie exclaimed wildly, still hopping around the place as she gratuitously inspected Clemont's machinery.

Clemont scratched the back of his head; flustered. He had forgotten he did that. He must be tired.

"Actually," Clemont spoke, adjusting his glasses as Meyer finished drying his eyes, "I just finished work on the tower a couple of days ago. I'm in the middle of packing up all this stray equipment so it can be sent back to its proper facilities."

That was half a lie. While Clemont's investors owned 99% of the equipment in the lab, the Prism Tower had been completed months ago.

"Well, that sounds like hard work!" Meyer exclaimed. He set the brown paper bag down on the desk. "We brought you dinner, by the way."

"Stew in a cup!" Bonnie helpfully added.

Then the lights went out. Everything shut off, just like that. The Tower. Clemont's computer. The lights of Lumiose City outside. All three Von-Klynes looked around in confusion, shrouded in the total darkness.

"What happened?" Bonnie asked.

Clemont got up from his seat, brushing his jumpsuit off. "I-it must be a failure with the power grid. I'll see if I can get the backup generator working."

He began to eagerly walk towards the giant archway of the tower.

"That's fine! We were just leaving, anyway!" Meyer called after him, a twinge of disappointment evident in his voice. "Remember to come home if you're tired!"

"We were?" Clemont could hear Bonnie ask in confusion. He made haste to exit the tower as fast as his mildly-out-of-shape body would take him.

It wasn't that Clemont wasn't happy to see Bonnie and Meyer- because, he was. He just didn't know how to break it to them that his inventing skills weren't what they used to be. That all the inventions he'd made since the completion of the Prism Tower had promptly exploded when switched on. That his fingers were crossed the Tower didn't explode as well on its opening day. That his father took so much pride in his son's inventing prowess… And that Clemont couldn't ruin that for him. He just couldn't. And now, he had to hope the city power grid had been responsible for the Tower's system failure- not the other way around.

Rubbing his fingers against his temples, Clemont leaned against the guardrails outside the Tower. He could hear the faint chatter of Meyer and Bonnie as they exited out the other entrance.

It was amazing how many stars showed themselves when the lights of the city were extinguished, he thought, before that train of thought was pushed to the back of his mind in favor of more pressing matters.

(-o-)

Liam stumbled through… wherever he was, coughing madly. He had a headache. He wanted to throw up. He didn't know what he was thinking when he had decided to do that. He knew now this was a bad idea! He…

…Where was he? Liam stopped for a moment, taking the time to catch his breath and bearings amongst the pounding headache reverberating through his mind. He was standing in the middle of a dirty alleyway, and the ground was made of paved cobblestones instead of artificial synthetic materials, and instead of a large, metal roof, there was the… night sky. The night sky! He could see the stars and everything!

Liam barely kept a whoop of joy to himself. His mind fleetingly realized amongst all the shock: he was_ so_ screwed; but that wasn't really important to Liam right now, because right now he was standing in the middle of a human alleyway, on a human planet, filled with all sorts of human things and even real-life humans!

He couldn't wait to see one. He had heard stories about humans before. How they were giants with massive blue eyes and not a single strand of fur or scales on their bodies. Now he would get to confirm those stories for himself!

Not that his first impression of human cities was any good. Liam carefully edged around a big black bag on the ground that smelt something putrid. He didn't even want to know what that was. Pokemon were cleaner.

He'd expected more lights, too; not the shrouded darkness that encircled the street. It seemed like pokemon were more technologically advanced as well, Liam noted disappointedly.

In fact, the streets were all empty. It was kind of creepy, now that Liam thought of it.

Maybe, just maybe, humans weren't all they'd cracked up to be. Maybe there was a good reason the pokemon had all migrated to Excalibur Satellite all those years ago. Maybe Liam had made a mistake in coming here.

Just the thought of that was enough to make Liam balk. And, with the monster of a headache he was having right now, he was stuck with the humans. Whatever they cracked up to be.

"Stupid cats…" Liam heard somemon grumble.

Some_thing_ grumble. He turned around to look to where the voice had come from.

There was something in the street. It stood on its hind legs, and it looked like it was dressed in… rags. Liam couldn't tell from this distance.

"Hey! Get out of here, cat!" He heard it yell.

"What's a cat?!" Liam yelled back.

"Espeon…" The thing mumbled. Then, it perked up.

"You're a pokemon!" It pointed at him wildly with a shaky front limb.

"How astute…" Liam grumbled.

"That-that's a pokemon right there." The Thing continued, its hand still pointing directly at Liam.

Then it charged straight at him. Liam didn't think. He looked one way, then the next, and then at the large tower that stood in the distance. And then he used the last of his mental energy in a desperate bid to _get out of there._

He didn't care where he ended up. As long as it wasn't here.

And then, with a flash of light, Liam was gone, and there was only a crazed man in the street, inanely ranting about some 'espeon.' Needless to say, the neighbors were _not_ amused.

(-o-)

Clemont's contract stated that under no terms was he to tamper with the systems of the Tower outside of an emergency. Clemont doubted that a mere power-out counted as an emergency, but he had to know. He had to know that the power grid had failed the Tower, instead of the Tower shorting out the power grid. A quick check of the wiring would do. If the Tower had affected the entire city, then it would have happened there.

He didn't know what he would do if it was the Tower.

Clemont was about to unscrew and remove the panel covering the wiring of the building. But suddenly, he found that his glasses were catching more light than he'd ever wanted them to, and he had to shield his eyes as a flash of brilliant white light erupted behind him, then fizzled out into nothing as quickly as it had come.

Baffled; Clemont turned around. Had something blown up? Had there been an electrical surge?! He hadn't heard an explosion.

However, instead of charred pavement and sparking wires, there was only… what looked like an unusually large cat lying on its side upon the pavement.

Clemont was both confused and terrified. What had happened? He rushed over to the animal's side, taking in its pink fur and the red gem on its forehead and the way it was looking up at him, with a gaze that suggested more than mere animal intelligence…

"You're… You're a pokemon…" Clemont stated in shock, falling back on his behind.

The pokemon looked almost disappointed.

"Es… peon…" It gasped out, panting in desperation. Clemont immediately understood.

"W-wait here!" He told the pokemon, getting to his feet as fast as humanely possible. "I'll be back as soon as I can! I promise!"

The pokemon could only roll its eyes as Clemont dashed into the Prism Tower as fast as his slightly-out-of-shape body would take him. _Where else was it going to go?_

(-o-)

"_The future is now, thanks to science!" _

The zany human yelled at the top of his lungs. It was weird, but… kind of entertaining, too. Liam had been fed and given water and even a place to sleep by the human, who had said something about a 'backup generator' and then switched the lights on (Liam had _known_ the humans had lights!).

"I anticipated an occasion like this might arise!" Clemont continued his tirade, striking another Inspiring Inventor Pose. He didn't get to do this often anymore. He'd forgotten just how exciting it was.

"Presenting…" Clemont gripped the dusty old cloth that was covering the device he'd just stashed in his red wagon. "The Clemontic Pokemon Language Translator!"

In one fell swoop, he whipped the cloth off the wagon, revealing something Liam could only describe as a high-tech strainer.

"Behold!" Clemont continued, far calmer than he had been just a few seconds before. "The Clemontic Pokemon Language Translator performs a complete analysis of vocal tone, movement, and expression in order to translate pokemon's speech into human language! Just watch…"

The pokemon watched, slightly confused as Clemont pressed the machine's on-switch, and the high-tech strainer suddenly began to whir in ways a strainer had no right to be whirring.

Liam honestly didn't have words for this. All he could express at the moment was a very obvious face of amused bafflement as he watched the human dance around, pressing buttons and making different noises come out of the strainer as he did it.

Eventually, the 'machine' stopped whirring, then dinged loudly as a thin sheet of paper slid out of the top. Clemont took it excitedly, preparing to read it aloud. Liam watched his face fall from the heights of absurd glee into the depths of forlorn confusion as his eyes glid across the page.

"I like to eat my peaches… with honey?" He read aloud in bafflement. Clemont looked back towards the machine. This wasn't right. Maybe he'd wired something wrong. He could fix it-

Liam rolled his eyes as the human started to frantically tinker with his precious strainer. He used a tiny piece of his recovering mental reserves to establish a psychic link with the human.

"_I speak the human language, …Clemont-Von-Klyne,"_ Liam told him mentally, quickly scanning Clemont's brain for the human's name. _"We learn it in the third grade."_

"H-how do you know my name?" Clemont stammered, looking up in surprise at the pokemon. The cat pokemon's lips weren't moving, but he was hearing the words all the same! He never would have believed…

…That something was very wrong with the machine. In fact, it looked like it was _melting_-

Clemont only had a few seconds to duck for cover before the strainer that _really_ shouldn't have had any explosive components to its name blew into bits, leaving only a smoking crater in the middle of the old red wagon as proof it once existed.

Liam deftly raised a psychic shield to protect himself from the flying debris. Humans were… interesting, he decided.

Clemont's crop of pichu-colored hair slowly rose up from behind a nearby desk, the human shakily pushing the round-rimmed spectacles he wore back onto his face as he got up from his hiding place.

"_I happen to be psychic, to answer your question,"_ Liam causally replied. _"Do humans not have psychic beings?"_

"W-we have mediums," Clemont replied, still trying to get over the shock of being spoken to in his head. "But they aren't the same thing…"

"…_Sad,"_ Liam continued. He couldn't fathom living in a world without all the abilities that came with being a pokemon. In fact; until now, he'd never even entertained the thought there _were_ beings without such abilities.

"_My name's Liam," _The espeon introduced himself._ "Liam Everest. I come from the Satellite."_

Liam watched in satisfaction as Clemont's eyes widened in shock.

"…What satellite?" He asked.

(-o-)

"Bonnie!" Meyer called from down the hallway, pulling up a shutter to let the morning light in as he went. "Are you ready for school?!"

There was no answer. Meyer flicked the light switch a couple of times. Still no power. Maybe a tree had fallen near the power grid or something.

Meyer knocked on Bonnie's door, waiting a good minute for a response before opening it a crack.

"Bonnie?" He called. The little girl was all tucked up in her bed, still asleep. Meyer immediately realized why. He knocked on the door again, a little louder. Bonnie stirred a little in her bed, but just rolled over and pulled the blanket over her ears.

Meyer sighed. It looked like this would need to be done the old-fashioned way. He walked into the room, stepping over laundry and toys strewn all about as he made his way towards Bonnie's bed. Gently, he pulled the covers off of Bonnie, the little girl muttering unintelligible gibberish annoyedly at the sudden draft in the room.

"Wake up, Bonnie," Meyer whispered. "You're going to be late for school."

"What…?" Bonnie murmured, still half-asleep.

"You're going to miss school."

"I don't wanna go to school…" Bonnie rolled over again and closed her eyes indignantly.

"What?" Meyer feigned a tone of shock in his voice. "And not turn in that essay you worked so hard on yesterday?"

"I only did that so I could see Clemont," Bonnie retorted, sounding much more awake than she wanted to be.

"I see…" Meyer made a show of checking his old mechanical watch, despite already knowing the time. "…But, it's 8:00. You slept in."

Bonnie suddenly sat straight up in bed; eyes wide with horror. She looked at Meyer in sheer panic.

"I slept in?!"

She jumped off the bed and began to shove schoolbooks, homework, and a few choice toys into her backpack.

Why didn't my alarm clock wake me?" She asked, slipping the still-open backpack onto her shoulders.

"No power." Meyer flicked the lamp switch on Bonnie's desk for good measure. "The entire city's been dark all night."

"Oh…" Rubbing her eyes sleepily, Bonnie began to stumble for the door to the hallway.

"Where's Clemont?" She asked.

That was a good question, Meyer realized. Where _was_ Clemont?

"I…'ll figure it out," Meyer finally settled upon. That seemed to appease Bonnie, who resumed her trudge towards the hallway.

"There's some stew left in the fridge if you want it!" He called after her. He walked to the door of Clemont's bedroom, swiftly knocking on it. When there was no answer, he tried the doorknob. Locked, as usual. That meant he hadn't come home last night.

Meyer did his best to quell the instant worry that flared up in his heart. He knew his son was technologically gifted. They probably just had him fixing whatever was causing the power-out. That was it.

There wasn't much else he could- no,_ would_ be up to… right?

(-o-)

"So, in summary…" Clemont was sitting on one of the desks, tinkering with a circuit board. "Exactly a century ago, all the pokemon in the world built the largest Biosatellite in existence and then migrated to live on it. And so the humans wouldn't find them…"

"…_They placed it in a time pocket exactly one second out of sync with the rest of the universe,"_ Liam finished for him. For the last twelve hours or so, they had been working on a human invention Clemont called 'Clembot.' While Clemont knew more about human technology than Liam did, Liam saw this as an opportunity to learn about human customs, and kept Clemont company as the boy worked.

As he tinkered with his machines, Clemont talked. A lot. He told Liam about Clembot's purpose; how he'd designed several groundbreaking inventions by the time he was 10, how he had struck the deal to design the Prism Tower (which humans were already labeling as 'the Eighth Wonder of the World'), and how he had designed nothing but duds after that. And eventually, as they talked, Liam told Clemont about the Satellite. He told Clemont about Dorian, and what had really happened all those years ago when the Departure took place, and how the other pokemon of the satellite never questioned what was outside the confines of their homes and cities.

"_I know it's a lot to take in,"_ Liam carefully stated after the duo had been quiet for almost an entire minute.

"I never would have believed any of this was possible…" Clemont said, his voice still wavering with the tone of a person who had just had their world completely destroyed and re-assembled for them within the past 5 minutes. "An extinct race… still living? "

Sticking the electronic circuit into Clembot's forehead, Clemont leaned back in disbelief, letting his glasses catch the light just the right way.

"Anything can be accomplished with the right cause and currency." The inventor spoke a moment later.

"_What?"_ Liam glanced at the young inventor in confusion.

"That used to be my motto. Before I switched to 'The Future is Now, Thanks To Science!'" Clemont meticulously adjusted his glasses. "It was 'Anything can be accomplished with the right cause and currency.'"

"_Why did you switch?"_ Liam asked him; perplexed. It sounded like a perfectly fine motto.

Clemont was quiet for a while. The light was still catching his glasses, but Liam could see the way the human's face had fallen none-the-less.

"I was thirteen when I made my first appearance on television," Clemont finally spoke. "My investors thought it sounded too cutesy for a thirteen-year-old, so they wrote me a new one."

"_The one you use now?"_ Liam asked.

"Precisely." Clemont let his glasses catch the light the entire time he talked. Liam was beginning to suspect it was on purpose. "But at the time, I didn't want to switch mottos. I-I never took well to new things. So, I used my old motto anyway, and deviated from the pre-written script." The inventor was sweating profusely. This wasn't a memory he enjoyed reliving.

"Immediately, I… ran out of words to say. Nothing was coming out of my mouth… I was standing there on the stage, gaping like a fish." Clemont aggressively adjusted his jumpsuit, like it was causing him immense discomfort. "I-it was the most embarrassing experience of my life," he concluded, getting up and screwing Clembot's forehead plate back on.

Clemont hadn't turned around yet. Even so; Liam could sense the negative emotions rolling off Clemont (one of the (dis)advantages of being a psychic type).

"I always wanted to believe that was true," the inventor continued, his back to Liam. "That if you worked hard enough; if you just found the right frequency; the right electric currency, you could accomplish _anything_, no matter who or where you were. And that day… I realized it wasn't. And that's why I switched mottos."

Liam took a moment to think on it.

"…_Did you know espeon can't teleport?"_ Liam carefully dropped his calculated response a mere thirty seconds later.

"What?" The espeon's off-hand statement caused Clemont to look back in curiosity.

"_Our ancestors could,"_ Liam continued. _"But after we migrated onto the satellite, somewhere along the line, we just… lost the ability. I spent my entire life thinking I would never be able to teleport. It was what my teachers told me; what my parents told me; what my friend told me…" _He questioned Clemont.

He thought he saw Clemont dry his eyes.

"_But I made it __here__,"_ Liam continued. _"Not only did I re-learn an ability my kind thought was lost; I did something with it that no-mon has ever done before!"_

"_And if I can do that,"_ the espeon spoke with an air of finality, _"then wouldn't you say your old motto holds at least a fragment of truth to it?"_

"…Yes," Clemont replied a little later. "I guess it would."

They sat in silence a while longer. Clemont opened his laptop, waiting for the password screen to pop up. He just needed to eject Clembot's memory disc…

Clemont adjusted the screen in a vain bid to get it to stop flickering on and off. Maybe he did need to get a new laptop after all. Then the keyboard sparked, and acrid fumes began to rise out from between the keys. Clemont dropped the laptop on the floor like it was made of liquid fire; Liam jumping back as well at the sound. The computer fell to the floor with a clatter, the disk slot popping open and neatly ejecting Clembot's memory disc. Clemont immediately grabbed the disc quick as a flash and jumped back from the laptop. And not a moment to soon; seconds later, the contraption burst into flames.

The young inventor dashed over to the wall, grabbing the fire extinguisher and heaving it back to the table.

"Stand back!" He told Liam, the espeon wisely keeping his distance as Clemont doused the fire like a madman.

After he was absolutely sure no flames had managed to survive, Clemont let the fire extinguisher's nozzle fall to the side limply. He leaned back against the desk, half in relief, half in desperation. He was failing machines just by touching them now… how long would it be before he lost his inventing skills completely?

Liam's ears pricked up. He could hear footsteps. Lots of footsteps.

"Are those… humans?" the espeon mentally prodded, causing Clemont to perk up almost immediately.

"T-the investors!" Clemont exclaimed. "I forgot they were coming early!" Grabbing the burnt laptop and pocketing Clembot's memory disc, he began to hurriedly wheel Clembot into a back room.

"Stay here," Clemont instructed Liam, setting the charred computer next to Clembot. "The investors can't see you under any circumstances!" With that, the bespectacled inventor shut the door, leaving Clembot and Liam in total darkness.

"Ah, Clemont!" Clemont nervously shuffled out to meet the group of fancily-dressed men entering through the archway of the building.

"You've really outdone yourself, Clemont."

"Are you sure it works?"

"I had my doubts, but… it seems you've really turned this thing around, Von-Klyne."

"(And to think, three years ago this was a dead project…)"

"(Don't say that! We don't want it going to his head.)"

"I like the archways. Nice touch."

Clemont wore a forced smile on his face as he shook hands with each and every one of them.

"So.." The Head-of-The-Board clapped his hands together. "Are you ready for the big moment? Got your speech and everything?"

"Y-yes, sir!" Clemont stammered; nervous. "I received it in the mail last week."

"Good to hear!" The Head-of-The-Board had a smile faker than Clemont's plastered on his face. "Noon. On the dot. Don't' be late, you hear?"

Clemont nodded.

"Great! Then, we'll just get this stuff out of here, and…"

The Head-of-The-Board snapped his fingers, and a crew of delivery men came in and began to cart the equipment out of the tower. Clemont wistfully watched them go. Even if he'd only designed duds with it, Clemont had to admit… having the equipment _had_ been nice.

"Now, let's perform the last minute inspection," the Head-of-The-Board continued. "I wanna know what's in this building, where it is, how it ticks and why."

Clemont pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, feeling everything that had been eating away at him for the past twelve hours melt away in an instant. _This;_ he could do.

"Well, if you'll all just follow me!" the bespectacled inventor began, leading the group of suited men further into the Tower.

A moment later, the closet door seemingly cracked open by itself. Liam walked out, shaking himself off. It had been dusty in that closet, and he didn't like the darkness.

Walking up to the deserted entrance of the Tower, Liam found himself confronted with the grand question: What now?

He had seen Earth. He had re-learned teleportation. He had arguably done more with his life than anymon since the building of the satellite. It was what he'd wanted, all his life.

And now he had it. So… why didn't he feel satisfied with himself?

Maybe because he had to go back now. As crummy as it made him feel to leave Clemont less than a day after meeting him, staying on earth any longer than he already had wasn't a wise decision in the slightest.

Liam looked up at the blue sky, succeeded by a mass of encroaching clouds in the distance. _A thunderstorm,_ senses he'd never had to use before told him.

He felt the wind blow in his face, forcing him to re-adjust the puffs of fur on his cheeks uncomfortably. Well, maybe _that_ he could do without. But the rest of it…

He reluctantly admitted to himself that against all better judgement, he didn't want to go back. He was never going to be happy living on the satellite ever again. Always; he would dream of seeing the blue skies once more, of feeling the wind on his face, however much he hated it, and… He really wanted to know what a thunderstorm was, too. But there wasn't a place for him here... was there? Was it possible?

A couple of human children ran past the sidewalk outside the Tower grounds, and Liam instinctively hid behind the giant entrance of the Tower to avoid being seen. He hadn't even thought before doing it… He just did.

"…But I have an I.D.!" Liam could hear the voice of a young human shouting at the top of her lungs, even though he couldn't see her. He remembered the first human he had seen after he arrived on the planet. How it had treated him like a mere animal.

He was always going to be running. Always going to be hiding. He was going to live a life of fear, all so he could wake up under a blue sky instead of a fake metal one.

What was better? He wondered. Living a life of fear, or living one of longing? He wondered if his ancestors had to ask themselves that question when they boarded the satellite all those years ago- if Dorian had to ask himself that question when he started building the satellite all those years ago. Was it possible for humans and pokemon to live together peacefully?

"…And that's the theory behind the Prism Tower's emergency generator." Liam's ears pricked up once again as Clemont led the group of investors back around the Tower. Liam panicked. He had to disappear. Fast!

A bright flash of light quickly died away as Clemont brought the group of investors to the front of the Tower.

"And that concludes the first official tour of Prism Tower!" Clemont declared, keeping up appearances for the sake of his clients. There was some scattered applause, but, for the most part, many of the businessmen looked positively bored out of their minds. It seemed scientific theory didn't quite most of them.

One of the investors checked their mobile phone, only to find sparking wildly in his hand, screen flickering on and off rapidly. The investor dropped it to the floor, the other men in suits quickly giving it a wide berth as crackling and hissing sounds came from inside.

Seconds later, the phone burst into flame, spewing acrid fumes as several of the investors grabbed the fire extinguisher that had been replaced on the wall and drowned the fire out.

Clemont adjusted his glasses in suspicion. Something wasn't right.…

"Well, that happened." The Head-of-The-Board's flamboyantly cheerful voice cut through the tension in the air like a knife.

"I think we've seen all we needed to," he said, shaking Clemont's hand once more. "However, I have an appointment at 11:30, and that's about…" He checked his watch. "5 minutes from now, so I must be off. And I think that one…" The Head-of-The-Board gestured briefly to the still-shocked businessperson, staring blankly at the remains of their phone. "…Needs a new phone. I'll return at Noon. No screw-ups. Got it?"

"…Understood," Clemont answered absentmindedly.

The Head of The Board nodded, and then he was off, the board of investors reluctantly following in his wake. One directed the guards at the entrance they were leaving through towards the phone, and they quickly hurried over to clean it up.

Clemont just stood there, deep in thought. First the blackout, then his laptop, then the investor's phone… were they connected?

"_Big Brother!"_

It was faint, and in the distance. Clemont turned around. He could see… But he thought she was in school…

"_Clemont!_ They let us out of school early today!"

Bonnie attempted to slow down as she approached Clemont, almost hitting the ground as she skidded to a stop in front of the young inventor.

"They let you out of school? Why?" Clemont asked earnestly. He couldn't see any reason they would have done that, even under the current circumstances.

"First, I failed my essay! Teacher says I did well, but pokemon aren't _real…_" Bonnie muttered in annoyance. Clemont had to hold back the urge to scoff. He had just spent the last 12 hours with a pokemon!

"…And then a coffee maker exploded!" Bonnie exclaimed. "It went_ boom_ and there was coffee _everywhere!_ And then the principal came out and said everyone gets to go home early today while they search the building!" Bonnie enthusiastically acted out the entire story in front of Clemont. Clemont added it to the laundry list of technological malfunctions he'd just made in the last 30 seconds. _An offsite explosion? Had something happened last night?_ He thought. The Prism Tower had worked just fine…

"Bonnie…" Clemont began uncomfortably. "I'm sorry… but you can't be here right now."

"But _why?"_ Bonnie moaned sorrowfully. "You're always working- we_ never_ get to see you anymore!"

"B-Bonnie…" Clemont adjusted his glasses again. "I'm giving a speech later today. Right now I have to prepare."

"Nu-unh!" Bonnie stamped her feet angrily against the ground. "I want to see you _now!"_

"I-I'm sorry," Clemont stammered; his hands shaking despite all efforts to the contrary. "I c-cant."

"You're not a good big brother!" Bonnie shouted at him, turning on her heels and running towards the Tower entrance before the guards could escort her off themselves. Clemont watched her go, torn between his little sister and his duties at the Tower. Straightening his spectacles one last time, he turned to the guards who had just finished cleaning up the destroyed phone.

"Make sure she gets home safely, please," he told them sullenly, before heading into the Tower.

(-o-)

Clemont checked his clockwork watch. It was 11:50. Almost time for the speech. Peeking around the elevator pole that took up the center of the lobby, he could already see people beginning to gather outside the now curtained archways of Prism Tower.

Clemont made a quick dash to the janitor's closet, noticing how it was open a crack.

"Liam?" He asked. No answer. Clemont slowly opened the door, half expecting to find the espeon sleeping. It had been a while, after all. But there was nothing, except for the charred husk of his computer and the dormant body of Clembot. Clemont wondered where he could have gone, Any minute now, hundreds of people were set to storm the building!

"Liam?" Clemont called out softly. There was still no answer.

He checked his watch again. 11:53. That was enough time to either prep Clembot, or search for Liam. But not both. And if Clemont searched for Liam… he'd have to recite the speech himself. Just the thought made Clemont want to shudder in fear. He pulled Clembot's memory disc out of his pocket. It was now or never.

11:54.

Clemont popped open Clembot's forehead like a dvd player, inserting the memory disc into it. The forehead groove snapped shut, the grooves along the opening the only indication that it wasn't a normal human forehead. Clemont straightened Clembot's sky-blue jumpsuit, and pulled the finishing tough out of his pocket: a pair of fake, round-rimmed glasses. He set them on Clembot's nose.

Clembot's eyes lit up with an electronic blue glow.

"Salutations!" It spoke in a voice almost indistinguishable from Clemont's own. "I am Clembot, at your service! What will you ask of me?"

Clemont straightened his own glasses in shock. It hadn't exploded yet! So far, so good.

"Execute primary protocols, please." Clemont commanded the robot.

"Affirmative. Executing Protocols."

Clembot turned towards the curtained archway of Prism Tower, beginning to tromp clumsily towards the stage outside. Clemont checked his watch. 11:58. It was going to be close. He turned to watch Clembot go, the fact it hadn't exploded yet filling him with a new sense of hope.

That hope vanished when he saw the way it was walking.

He was sure he didn't walk like that. All lopsided, barely keeping its balance as it tottered down the hall in a lopsided line. And the sky-blue jumpsuit it was wearing was smoldering in places.

And then it clicked. The blackout last night… the appearance of Liam… all the technology malfunctions… the fact that they had all exploded… They had all exploded.

They had all exploded!

Clemont wasted no time.

"Wait!" He called, running after Clembot, which was nearly at the curtain. "Abort protocols!"

Clembot stopped. It contorted half its upper body around inhumanly to look at him.

"Protocols can only be deactivated using the Master Recognition Password," The robot uttered. "Please present Master Recognition Password for confirmation."

"The password…" Clemont stated, "…Is **Sandwich**."

"Invalid password. Please try again. You have two more attempts remaining."

"What?" Clemont looked up in shock. But the password was Sandwich!

"T-the password is **Sandwich**," Clemont tried again.

"Invalid password," Clembot repeated. "Please try again. You have one more attempt remaining."

Clemont checked his watch. 1:00. He was supposed to be on-stage, giving his speech right about now!

By now, Clembot's jumpsuit had already smoldered off completely, and the Tower was filled with the stench of burning fabric. Down to his last resort, Clemont was desperate.

"But I programmed you!" he pleaded with Clembot.

"Negative," Clembot uttered in a voice that sounded almost nothing like Clemont at all. There were the sounds of small fizzling and cracking pops coming from within the machinery. "Y-you have not presented Master Rec-cogn-n-ition Passw-word. You have O-o-ne Att-tem-p-pt R3m-maining."

"The password is **Sandwich**!" Clemont yelled in frustration.

"I-1-i-nval-l1d p-;/pa5s-c-c0de," Clembot stuttered. "C-clien-n-t h-has fai-i-1-led to pr/0-v-vide Ma-s-5-ter R-3C0gn1T10N.P-assw0r\\\:D. 3x3cut1ng :]"

With that, Clembot began its short-lived journey towards the curtain, its fake locks of lemon-colored hair burning up and floating down to the ground as the curtains pulled back to admit it. Clemont couldn't bring himself to follow it.

(-o-)

Bonnie folded her arms. She didn't want to go to her brother's stupid speech anymore, but Father had forced her to. From the seat beside her, Meyer looked over at his foul-tempered daughter.

"Aren't you excited?" He asked her. "Yesterday you were all head-over-heels to go see Clemont."

"That was _yesterday,_" Bonnie replied scathingly.

Unsure of how to reply to that, Meyer just sat back in his seat. Had something happened without him noticing… ?

"Look!" He excitedly encouraged Bonnie, pointing to his manual watch. "It's starting."

The curtains pulled back slowly, and something looked like it was stumbling out towards the stage. It didn't look anything like Clemont. Bonnie leaned forwards in her seat, a look of confusion on her face. It was walking all funny, like it had forgotten how to walk. Bonnie twitched her nose in the air in disgust.

"Something's burning," She remarked.

Meyer smelled it too. His heart instantly filled with worry despite himself. What if something was very wrong? Very gently, he grabbed hold of Bonnie's hand. Just in case.

Over in the background, a man in a suit suddenly felt his heart fill with worry as well, but for entirely different reasons.

"_T-t-t-H-3 fUT-uR3 15 n0W, tHaNkZ /:T-t-t-t-00 S-c-1-3ns3!"_

A tinny, robotic voice sounded out of nowhere, and then a humanoid robot that looked nothing like Clemont at all staggered out onto the stage. It was actively sparking and smoking, the upper half of its body hanging to one side lopsidedly.

It stood there for a moment, quietly fizzling as it surveyed all the people intently watching its every move.

Then it exploded.

(-o-)

Liam closed his eyes, focusing his energy inside his ruby forehead gem. There was no room for distractions. Just a single stray thought could mess everything up.

He envisioned the satellite, floating all on its lonesome in space. He imagined Audino driveway, in all its artificial glory. He remembered the (definitively subpar) drawings of the satellite everyone else had done for their school project in the second grade, a picture of Liam's house that had been taken just a few days ago…

He wanted to be there. He wanted to be there with every fibre of his being…

No. He didn't. Not really.

There was an explosion in the distance. Liam's sudden acknowledgment of the boom was all it took-

-And then there was a bright flash of light, and suddenly he was _on_ the stage in broad daylight, standing shakily in front of hundreds of people!

Liam wanted to throw up; half from shock and half from exhaustion. This had been a bad, half-baked idea from the very start, and he wished he'd never gone through with it…

In the audience, a six-year-old girl leaned on the edge of her seat in glee, making a note of just how wrong her teacher had been.

(-o-)

Clemont watched the entire debacle unfold from inside the Tower, where the crowd couldn't see him. He had thought that by staying in the background and letting Clembot do the speaking for him, he'd be doing everyone a favor! But it had only made everything worse…

He didn't know how he could bear to walk out onto that stage now. To see the shocked and appalled faces of the crowd; the angered looks of the investors, the disappointment written on his father's face…

And so instead, he stayed there, his entire body shaking like he'd never see the light of day again.

But then, there was a bright flash of light on the stage, and Clemont watched Liam materialize in shock. He couldn't go out there…

…But he couldn't leave Liam, either.

Clemont adjusted his watch, taking a long glance at the words etched on the watch's maroon strap: "Anything can be accomplished, with the right cause and currency!"

If that was true… If his mother had been right… If Liam had been right… If _he_ had been right, three years ago… the next five minutes would prove it.

Clemont Von-Klyne took a deep breath to steel himself, and then walked out into the open.

**(-o-)**

A weary joltik climbed into a large basin attached to a building. Scuttling up and pressing a button, it felt rejuvenating electric currents shower into its body. Completely replenished, the pokemon skittered out of the basin and went about its day, beneath the blue sky.

It had been three years since Clemont had made his speech. Three years since the world had been introduced to pokemon once again. Teleportation, it turned out, had a nasty knack for reversing electric currents- and Liam's arrival on earth had fried all the technology in Lumiose City. Only one device had survived the blast: Prism Tower's backup generator.

And with the only surviving device of Lumiose City a Clemont Von-Klyne creation, Clemont and Liam were given free rein to redesign the city's power system (Clemont designed the gadgets, and Liam battle-tested them. Sometimes, Clemont would invite Bonnie to watch, although she preferred to torture Liam's fur more than watch Clemont). A year later, and the Von-Klynes were harnessing the power of teleportation to finally reach the Satellite.

Last Liam had heard, Clemont was working on a backpack that functioned like an aipom arm.

A meinshao leaned against an abandoned building in Golurk's Square, her whip-like arms folded aloofly. She was one of the few who hadn't migrated down to earth two years ago like the rest of pokemonkind.

"It seems a whole lot more pokemon cared than you thought."

Sasha turned her head, noting the espeon who had slunk up behind her.

"…Fine. You were right," she admitted.

The espeon didn't say anything. A coy smirk adorned his face.

"But now…" Sasha continued, determined not to let him have the last laugh, "I get this entire place to myself! Never cared much for blue skies and humans anyway."

Liam stayed silent. He sat next to her, admiring the space-gate with Sasha. While he enjoyed earth… it was always nice to visit.

"What was it like?" Sasha asked, a hint of curiosity reluctantly piercing through her voice.

Liam cleared his throat, finally preparing to speak.

"How about you see it yourself?"

Sasha hit him lightly in the face with one of her arm whips. Liam barely felt it.

He went back to staring at the space-gate. Three years ago, no-one would have believed the future would look like this. It seemed the Von-Klyne motto held true after all: Anything could be accomplished, with the right cause and currency.

Written for the Summer Fanfic Contest on the Pokewrite Forum! Based upon the following prompt: use the phrase "Anything can be done with the right cause and currency." and make this phrase a key part of the plot. How you interpret the phrase or who says it is up to you.


End file.
